Manus Island tragedy: In too deep?

Michael Gordon and Sarah Whyte

The aside came from Brendan O'Connor during an hour of uproar before Federal Parliament adjourned last Thursday, after its first sitting week of the year. As the former immigration minister brushed by the man who now holds his old job during a division, O'Connor remarked, more in empathy than spite: ''Not so easy, is it Scott?''

Earlier that afternoon, a triumphant Scott Morrison, the architect of Operation Sovereign Borders, had reported that 56 days had passed without the arrival of a single boat, and ridiculed those on the other side - the ''captains of border chaos'', he called them - for their failures on border protection.

''There is still a long way to go in this operation,'' he declared, ''but the truth is these policies are getting the results they were designed to get.''

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

As Morrison and Prime Minister Tony Abbott see it, there is but one result that counts - whether they have ''stopped the boats'' - and all the evidence suggests they are on track to deliver it, even if the slowing began when Labor implemented a version of offshore processing on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island that was tougher than John Howard's Pacific Solution.

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But, as the chaos and carnage that unfolded on Manus earlier this week made plain, there are other ways to measure the ''results'' of Operation Sovereign Borders, and they do not paint a flattering picture.

Just what triggered the disturbance that ended in the death of one man and injuries, some critical, to more than 60 others is the subject of two investigations, but the cocktail of desperation, tension, ignorance and oppression had been brewing on the island detention centre for months.

The difficulty in piecing together an account of precisely what happened, where and when, is a window into another powerful ingredient of the cocktail: an inability to get information in, or out, of the centre. This, in turn, gives rise to anxiety, misinformation and suspicion.

The more than 1300 asylum seekers in the island's detention centre, some of whom have been there since late in 2012, do not know when their claims for refugee status will be processed; or where they will live if their claims are found to be genuine (they know Australia won't take them); or what privileges, in the form of work, or travel, or citizenship rights, might follow.

Their inability to express their frustration was cited in a departmental inquiry that reported in September and suggested measures to improve morale and ''reduce the scope for further unrest and disruption'', including more English classes, more outside excursions (''especially swimming excursions given the heat'') and more telephone and internet access.

Since then, the arrival of many more asylum seekers in the detention centre has only made it more difficult for inmates to benefit from any of these things. One employee confirmed there had been no swimming excursions, but added: ''They can't swim anyway because of the crocodiles!''

Outsiders don't know what is happening in the centre, aside from the bleak picture painted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Amnesty International, the two non-government organisations that have been granted access under strict conditions, or by Greens' senator Sarah Hanson-Young, the only non-government politician to visit.

The September review by the former head of the Attorney-General's Department, Robert Cornall, made other recommendations about the need for a special area for ''vulnerable'' asylum seekers, media access to reduce the likelihood of inaccurate reporting, and measures to ensure that locals - especially those employed for ''security and guarding work'' - were adequately trained and supervised.

Morrison says recommendations for an area for the vulnerable, more English classes and training were picked up, but declined to indicate when the first decisions on refugee status would be announced. Moreover, calls from the UNHCR for a clear legal framework covering detention and processing have so far gone unheeded, with one insider saying the processing that is in train is proceeding under a regulation that has lapsed, that no draft act has been forwarded to the agency or any advice provided on how a proposed ''pilot resettlement program'' on Manus would operate.

The immediate response to the violence has been an increase in the security presence, a vow from Abbott and Morrison that their commitment to the policy is absolute, and some evidence of frantic attempts to recruit more caseworkers.

One midweek email to prospective fly-in, fly-out workers began: ''A dynamic international organisation is currently seeking 15-20 caseworkers to fly out of Brisbane to Papua New Guinea this Saturday 22nd of Feb for 21 days. Yes, short notice, I know, however, those of you who like adventurous challenges … then get in touch ASAP! Due to the urgency of this, applications close by 4pm today!''

Security contractor G4S also advertised that it was seeking experienced ''safety and security officers for an exciting short-term, FIFO position located Manus Island, Papua New Guinea''.

Morrison reported on Monday night's violence at the earliest opportunity the next day, saying unrest had been anticipated, prompting an increase in security that may have prevented the incident escalating into something far worse.

The main reason for the casualties, and the death, as he saw it, was that people had decided to take themselves outside ''the safety of the centre'' and placed themselves at risk. After reports that much of the violence, and the death, had occurred inside the centre, he now says the truth won't be known until the investigations are completed.

Reports that the main violence occurred inside have since been backed up by mental health expert Professor Louise Newman, who says she has spoken to staff who confirmed that local security staff had entered the centre, some of them armed with machetes, and that there had been sustained periods of gunfire. One worker who was off the island says she was called by frantic asylum seekers, who told her they were in fear of their lives and wanted to know where to hide.

In the absence of an official account of what occurred, there were other snapshots that raised more questions than were answered. Azita Bokan, the interpreter who spoke out after she was suspended (on her account for going to the aid of an asylum seeker), maintained that the patience of asylum seekers was exhausted when they were pressured to return to their homelands on Sunday.

One staffer who asked not to be identified applauded Bokan for speaking out in an email to friends, but said Bokan would never get a job as an interpreter for the department again. ''I will be ready to blow the whistle one day, when I don't need the deployments too. I am not coming back here as it's a hellhole and the refugees are really suffering,'' the staffer wrote.

Another volunteered that verbal abuse of the security guards by some asylum seekers was a trigger for the violence. There have also been rumours of dalliances between local PNG women and lonely asylum seekers, and claims that huge discrepancies between what locals and Australians were paid were a source of tension.

So, what happens now? Within a week, the hundreds of G4S staff will depart the island, Morrison confirmed on Thursday, stressing that the end of the contract was not due to the latest spate of violence. The Salvation Army's contract to provide for the wellbeing of the asylum seekers has also ended.

On Friday night at 11.59pm Salvation Army staff will officially leave Manus Island and Nauru as they are replaced by construction giant Transfield Services, which has the contract for these services at the government's other foreign processing centre on Nauru.

Transfield spokesman David Jamieson says the company has begun to move its own security forces to the island, adding that it will be retaining half the Salvation Army staff, which is about 100 workers. ''In the 12 months we have been operating in Nauru not one person has come to any harm through our services,'' he says.

For Amnesty, events this week have only reinforced its view that a closed detention centre on Manus Island is not the place to detain people who claim they have fled persecution. ''These people were deteriorating two months ago, now they have further trauma,'' spokesman and refugee co-ordinator Graham Thom says. ''We have visited Nauru and Manus Island and we have seen the damage that has been done to people and we don't believe the facilities are adequate for vulnerable people.''

Rather than prodding the Labor Party to reconsider its support for processing on PNG, immigration spokesman Richard Marles has recommitted the opposition to supporting offshore processing on Manus Island, declaring: ''I can't stress enough how important the Manus Island detention facility is to Australia's strategy for dealing with boats coming to Australia.''

Others who have opposed the policy from the start hope it may prompt those who supported the policy because they want to stop drownings at sea to press for more humane alternatives. ''We want to stop the boats, too, but we don't want to send people to such a fate,'' says David Manne, executive director of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre. ''A starting point has to be an agreement that we don't want to harm people.''

Hanson-Young agrees, expressing the hope that the tragedy may be a turning point in the asylum seeker debate. Not likely, replies Morrison, who began a media conference on Friday on the situation on Manus by reporting that there had not been a boat arrival in 64 days, the longest stretch without an arrival since August of 2008.

Just as he remains utterly committed to the policy of turning back the boats, which continues to be a source of tension in Australia's relationship with Indonesia, there will be no retreat on the policy of indefinite offshore detention. ''Our resolve to continue the full suite of measures under Operation Sovereign Borders is absolute,'' he said.

The minister said the same man who conducted the last departmental review of the situation on Manus, Robert Cornall, would establish the facts of this week's tragic events and make recommendations. He made no commitment to implement any recommendations arising from Cornall's work.